Tribune Company Reports Earnings Slump

Tribune Co. reported a slump in second-quarter earnings Thursday due to the advertising slowdown. Tribune, which owns 11 newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and Newsday, 22 television stations and more than 50 web sites, said the rate of decline in ads eased toward the end of the quarter and in the first three weeks of July, raising hopes that the slowdown may have bottomed out. But Tribune also warned that the continuing pinch will cause third-quarter results to be at the low end of Wall Street estimates.